Ancient crosses in towns and villages around the British Isles bear witness to many historic events. In 1923, Stephen Mitchell & Son commissioned a series of twenty-five illustrations of Famous Crosses for the card issue which is our set of the month for January. As befits a Scottish firm, several of the subjects are from north of the border, including Edinburgh Cross, around which was summoned the Scottish Army before Flodden Field. Moving south to the English capital, e find a lovely evocative picture of Charing Cross in the dusk with lights shining from the windows of Charing Cross Station. High Cross, near Hinckley in Leicestershire, as the junction of the old Roman roads Watling Street and Fosse Way, is supposed to mark the exact centre of England while Banbury Cross of “ride a cock horse” nursery rhyme fame in the Horse Market is a replacement for the original destroyed by Puritans as a symbol of Popish faith. You might say Hereford is the double-cross City – it is blessed with two cards in this series, Blackfriars Cross and the White Cross, round which during the great plague reservoirs of vinegar were placed for the cleansing of money and other articles suspected of infection

This set of 25 Famous Crosses 1923 Stephen Mitchell & Son in finest collectable condition is catalogued at £17.50